Once a main wellbore has been drilled and cased in a geological formation, it may be desirable to form radial boreholes out from the main wellbore to increase the ultimate recovery of reserves. To accomplish this, holes are typically first formed in the casing wall to provide access for borehole forming equipment to enter the surrounding formation to form radial boreholes.
In common practice, initial casing hole formation includes running a cutting apparatus into a main wellbore to a point where a deflector device in the main wellbore operates to guide the cutting apparatus toward the inner wall of the casing to form a hole in the casing wall. Once a hole has been formed, the cutting apparatus can be removed from the main wellbore and replaced with borehole forming equipment to form a radial borehole in the surrounding formation beyond the casing hole.
Unfortunately, a cutting apparatus may be poorly stabilized during casing hole formation if the cutting apparatus is not properly oriented along the deflector device as the cutting apparatus is run into the main wellbore. For example, as the cutting apparatus is run into the main wellbore, the cutting apparatus may not successfully follow the guide path of the deflector device, leading to instability of the cutting apparatus during operation, thus, requiring additional time to form the casing hole. In particular, the configuration of a given deflector device may demand a departure of the cutting apparatus from vertical up to about 90° or more toward the inner wall of the casing. Depending on the size of the cutting apparatus and the configuration of the deflector device, the inner diameter of the casing may demand too great a turning radius for a particular cutting apparatus in relation to a particular deflector device, thereby limiting the minimum inner diameter of casing to which a particular cutting apparatus can be applied. Furthermore, known cutting apparatuses may be susceptible to getting hung up in the main wellbore prior to reaching the deflector device altogether.
The present apparatus, system and method address the deficiencies of the prior art.